You read the title right, stop being so focused on how much you need customers. You may have seen a decline in sales recently, but you don’t want current or potential customers to know, so you have to stay cool as a cucumber. Grasping for customers can turn a lot of potentials away and make current customers question their loyalty.

Here are 3 reasons to stop needing customers:

Desperation is unattractiveIf you approach an interaction with a potential customer feeling desperate about landing them, you’ll often look desperate and make compromises you wouldn’t normally make. Whether you’re dating, selling a product or networking, desperation doesn’t look good on anyone. You likely don’t know you look desperate, but if you’re quick to offer discounts, fast to schedule appointments or respond to emails in a matter of minutes, you may just be giving off the air of desperation.

It’s time to retrain your brain. Understand your company won’t crash and burn because you don’t land this one customer. It’s not the customer’s responsibility to keep your company alive, it’s yours. Remember taking on the wrong customers or clients is never the right decision.

From print advertising to social media ads, your ads need to have compelling copy in order to get the most bang for your buck. Print ads are easily skipped over unless there is something to stop grab a reader and draw them in. Sure running a Facebook ad will get you increased reach regardless of the quality, but if your ad is compelling you can see those numbers skyrocket! So how do you write quality copy for your ads?

Did you know only 8% of people who make New Year’s Resolutions are successful? It’s easy to get caught up in the New Year’s resolution hype only to find yourself in the same old habits just weeks later. Anything seems possible after a taking a week off for the holidays, but once you get back to work your best intentions don’t always hold up. Well, we’re here help prevent you from becoming like the 92% of people who fail at reaching their New Year’s Goals. So how do you keep the momentum going?

Here are our 7 tips to keep your good habits going after the New Year’s hype dies: ​

Here at 27th Letter Media we love to work with nonprofits and added several new nonprofit clients in 2016. As we’ve added more nonprofits to our mix, we’ve noticed there are a handful of marketing basics they often miss.

Here are the 5 things we’ve learned are crucial to nonprofit marketing:

Keep Your Brand Up to DateWith a smaller marketing budget than many for profit business, nonprofits often fail to keep their brand updated, resulting in them look outdated and cheap. A brand refresh may be less expensive than you think and is a great investment for your nonprofit. Beautiful and consistent visuals are incredibly important to capture your audience. Ask your designer to provide you with brand guidelines to help you and your team stay consistent throughout all of your materials, both online and off.

We believe it’s never too late to make a New Year’s Resolution. We love to see small businesses grow and succeed! Whether you are just getting started or have been in the game for years, get the New year started on the right foot with a few resolutions.

Here are our 5 resolutions for small businesses:

Stay PositiveIn the drag of the everyday it can be hard to keep yourself positive. Emails keep coming, clients and customers are asking for help and it doesn’t feel like there are enough hours in the day. We get it. But it’s time to grab the bull by the horns. Remind yourself that without those clients and customers you aren’t in business. When you get a new request, smile and remember they are helping grow your business!

Are you frustrated with the conversions from your blogs? We’ve talked about how important blogging is for your business, and now we’re here to give you a few more tips. It’s one thing to post regular blogs, it’s another thing to regularly post quality blogs.

Here are 5 tips for writing better blogs for your business:

Start StrongHook readers in by starting out with an engaging question, statistic or story. Relate to your readers quickly and make them want to read what you have to say. Writing blog posts takes valuable time and you don’t want it to go to waste.

Be PersonableReaders want to get to know you, so let them. Your blog posts don’t have to be buttoned up and professional. Throw in a few jokes and make yourself relatable. The easier it is to read, the more likely it is to be read. Let your personality shine through to keep readers coming back for more.

Write it DownIf you’re like us you likely set aside time each month to write one (or a few) blog posts. In between writing sessions, keep a running list of new blog ideas. Did a customer call in with a good question to answer in written form? Did you recently learn something new from an event? Read something inspiring? Add it to the list. By tracking inspiration as it strikes, you will make your writing blocks easier and more effective.

Know Where You’re GoingBefore you get started it’s important to know where you’re going. Once you pick a topic for a blog post, decide what type of blog it needs to be before you get started. Some common styles include research pieces, lists and how-tos. Knowing where you are going with your post gives you framework for your research and makes the writing process faster.

Make it Scan-ableWith all of the content available in the world today it’s very uncommon for readers to read every word of a blog post. Write for the scanners. Keep your paragraphs short, use subheadings, include lists and pull quotes to make it easy for readers to quickly scan through the post.

What other tips have helped you with your business blogging? Comment below!

When it comes to attracting customers to your business it is no longer as simple as pointing out why you are better than your competitors. You need to gain the trust of potential customers before they become customers -- enter inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is the promotion of your company through blogs, podcasts, newsletters, social media marketing and other forms of content.

Allow us to introduce you to a few of inbound marketing’s characteristics:

Inbound marketing gives before it takesThis may seem backwards to you, but trust us. If you’re an accountant, offer accounting advice on your blog, if you are a baker, share some free recipes. This type of content establishes you as an expert and is what people are searching for. Focus your content on keyboards you are targeting to attract the correct audience. Think of this as pulling people towards your company as opposed to pushing your company on them.

Inbound marketing pays attention Buyers go through a buying cycle: awareness, consideration, intent, purchase and repurchase. When implementing an inbound marketing plan, nurture prospects through each stage of the buying cycle. When someone comes to read a blog, they are likely in the awareness stage, when they have abandoned their cart they are in the consideration stage. By using tools such as Google analytics you can keep an eye on where your prospects are. Then, create a series of additional blogs and email automations so you can keep in touch with your prospects at every step helping guide their decision.Inbound marketing gives hugs Instead of whacking prospects over the head with why your product or service is better than the others, take them under your wing and teach them. Tutorials, free trials and fun instruction videos all help potential customers get to know you and your product or service. Helping them feel comfortable makes it easier to take the leap and purchase from you.Inbound marketing tells the truth There are no scams here, at least not if you’re doing it correctly. There are some “transactions” along the way with inbound marketing. Offers such as “submit your email address for a free ebook” are common, but it’s important to be up-front about your intentions so prospects don’t feel scammed.Inbound marketing is persistent This isn’t a get rich quick scheme. This is a process and will require work. You can’t simply post a how-to blog and have customers knocking down your door. As you implement your inbound marketing plan you will build and email list, follow up with prospects and continue to share your expertise. The good news? One successful blog post can bring in prospects for years.Like what you see? Let us get you set up with some inbound marketing, schedule a consultation today!

Being a business owner means you wear a lot of hats. We’ve put together a list of habits to work on developing in order to see your business grow and make it through your task list each day. It sounds scary, but we promise it’s not.

Here are our 10 habits for all business owners to adopt:

Set GoalsIn order to get where you’re going, you need to know where you’re headed. Set short and long term goals and write them down. If possible, create a visual way to track your progress to keep you motivated such as a whiteboard. Check in on your goals weekly, monthly or yearly to keep yourself heading in the right direction.

We get it. You’re tight on time and are pushing the limits of your creativity daily trying to keep up with all your marketing channels. You’re at the point where you need help. You may think it’s time to hire a marketing manager, but we would say otherwise. Did you know, hiring an agency can save you money while providing you with higher quality services. (Already convinced? Schedule a consultation today!)

You save moneyOn the surface you may not believe us, but when you really crunch the numbers it becomes pretty obvious that keeping an agency around is cheaper than hiring in-house. Employees are expensive. Not only do you pay them a salary, but at the very least you will need to provide them with a desk, an email address and coffee. This isn’t even taking into consideration any benefits packages you may offer. Hiring an agency means you have more money to invest in marketing efforts.

One of the best ways to stand out from the pack is with positive customer reviews -- a lot of them. It feels daunting to collect reviews when you’re getting started, and while it’s a slow process, it’s pretty simple.